The present invention is directed to vending machines which dispense products, i.e., either goods or services, automatically in exchange for value or credit as represented by indicia on a coded vend card. The invention is more specifically directed towards a technique for accounting for the number of plays or transactions, the cash sales volume, and other data relating to the transactions carried out on the associated vending machines of a system.
Many varieties of automatic vending machine devices are in common, everyday use. These include not only machines that vend snack food items, soft drinks, or other food items, but also machines that vend services, such as photocopiers, pay telephones, laundry machines and (where legal) amusement or gaming machines. Vending machines have traditionally accepted tokens, cash (bills and coins) or, more recently, magnetic stripe cards. In the latter case, a vend card has an encoded magnetic stripe. Coded indicia recorded on the magnetic stripe represent the purchase limit available to a card holder. To make a purchase, the card holder inserts the magnetic stripe vend card into a card reader, and the reader picks up and interprets the indicia on the card. This enables the associated vending machine to dispense its goods or services. When the purchase is complete, the remaining, unused purchase credit is written back onto the magnetic stripe, and the card is returned to the card holder.
Magnetic stripe vend cards have several advantages over other techniques. With the card rather than cash being used for purchases, losses due to pilferage and due to counterfeit coins, tokens and currency are markedly reduced. Card vend systems can also enable the automatic machines to reward or otherwise to incentivize the purchaser to make card purchases rather than cash purchases.
A conventional set-up can match a vend card reader with each of the vending machines, so each machine would require its own card reader. In more complex systems, a group of vending machines can all be associated with a single card reader to serve all the machines. Vending machine arrangements that permit either cash or vend-card purchases are described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,669,596. Several improved vending machines have been previously proposed to permit the purchaser to make purchases using a credit or debit card. Typical vending systems are described in Goodman U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,132,915; Horne et al. 5,091,713; Bissell et al. 4,124,109; Tateisi 4,011,433; Tanaka et al. 3,935,933, and Hayeshi 4,809,837. A system in which several vending machines are all associated with a single card reader is described in my co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/236,032, filed May 2, 1994, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
As card vending systems have become more popular, card vending has become employed for a larger variety of goods and services. With the increased volume and variety of vend card use, the problem of accounting and inventory for all of the vending machines has come to the forefront. Obtaining a meter reading for a pre-paid debit card system typically requires an operator to read meters on the various machines and to write down the meter readings in a book for each vending machine. Reading the number of transactions or the cash or money value of the transactions on a given machine can require setting switches or push buttons on the machine to obtain a reading, or printing to a printer to obtain a printed paper output of the transaction record of the machine. It is also possible to read meters remotely by transmitting the meter reading on a telephone line to a central station. However, access by telephone lines can lead to security problems, and to an inability to transfer transaction data in the case of a communications link failure. These techniques are also open to human error, and moreover require a large number of steps in collecting and processing the data.
Several systems have been proposed for transfer of information from remote terminals to a central "host" terminal where data from the remote terminals are processed. In McCarthy U.S. Pat. No. 5,276,312, a "smart card" which includes a small computer chip is used to communicate between a central terminal and so-called "agent" remote terminals. The agent terminals can be automated vending apparatus. The smart card conveys wagering limit information, for example, and can be used to upload or download data at the agent terminals.
Mansvelt et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,175,416 describes a funds transfer system for exchanging value information between two smart cards. Johnson et al U.S. Pat. No. 5,149,945 relates to a device that couples to a personal computer or point-of-sale device, and communicates with a portable data carrier, such as a smart card. Wright et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,900,903 describes an automated transaction system that also employs microprocessor-bearing user cards. Bergeron et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,882,473 describes an on-line smart-card actuated wagering system, where information that is stored on the cards can include transaction data and maintenance data. Haun et at. U.S. Pat. No. 4,843,200 describes a point-of-sale (POS) credit authorization slip which incorporates two magnetic strips. The second magnetic strip permits transfer of data from the POS terminal to the credit card issuer. Richardson et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,747,049 relates to another point-of-sale device that accepts customer cards, and periodically transfers purchase information from its write buffer onto magnetic tape.
To date, no one has disclosed a convenient way for meter reading the purchase transaction data on various vend card actuated vending machines in a vending system. No system has been disclosed that avoids installing additional hardware above what is already provided for the system. No system has been proposed that would employ as a medium for reading and transferring the transaction data meter cards that are structurally identical to the vend cards.